Keep every exception in the linter config

How to do it

Inline disable comments spread, and nobody can list them. An override in the config is one place to read, review and remove. Make the linter report disable comments that are not needed or have no reason, so the count can only go down. Each exception still follows Check every rule in code.

Examples

Using these examples: they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

JavaScript example

// stylelint.config.mjs: the one place for exceptions, each with its reason
export default {
  reportNeedlessDisables: true,
  reportDescriptionlessDisables: true,
  overrides: [
    {
      // Must win over every component, so it is the one allowed !important
      files: ['styles/utilities/visually-hidden.css'],
      rules: { 'declaration-no-important': null },
    },
  ],
};

Python example

# Build check: no linter is switched off inside a source file
import pathlib, re, sys
DISABLE = re.compile(r"(stylelint|html-validate)-disable")
hits = [str(p) for p in pathlib.Path("src").rglob("*") if p.suffix in {".css", ".html"} and DISABLE.search(p.read_text())]
print("\n".join(f"FAIL {hit} turns a linter off" for hit in hits))
sys.exit(1 if hits else 0)

CSS example

/* Fails the check: an exception hidden in a source file */
/* stylelint-disable-next-line selector-max-id */
#promo { }

How to check

A search of the stylesheets and templates finds 0 stylelint-disable or html-validate-disable comments. Every override in the config names a file path and has a comment with its reason on the line above.

Related rules

• Check every rule in code in Engineering